I haven't listed a bowl for a while. This one has gold inclusions in both the grooved rim and in the dark brown/black inner part of the bowl. We don't see a lot of gold in Czech glass from the communist era, so this, on it's own, (ignoring the stylish design), tells us that the makers considered this a quality piece. It's labelled "Crystalex". This is likely to prove to be one of those pieces about which I later kick myself for selling so cheaply, but at the moment, we don't know who designed it.

We do know who made it approximately when it was made. Crystalex was a massive company made up of a number of glass factories, and focused on exporting. It was formed as the Utility Glass Manufacturing and Comercial Enterprise on 1 January 1972, and renamed Crystalex in 1974. It appears to have broken up in the early 1990s, around the time of the end of communism in Czechoslovakia and the formation of the Czech Republic (on 1 January 1993). So this piece, labelled "Czechoslovakia" rather than "Czech Republic", would have been made sometime between 1974 and 1993.

Czech glass is a largely undiscovered delight. Czechoslovakia made more glass than any other country in the 1930s, before the industry was devastated by the Second World War and the disruption of communism. Czech artists were pushed towards glass design, and the tremendous skill base in glassmaking flowered in the 60s and 70s. The books on Czech glass from this era are only just starting to be published - it's a green field for collectors with a little knowledge and a good eye.